ON THIS DATE (6 YEARS AGO) September 15, 2008 - Richard Wright / Rick Wright (b. July 28, 1943) died at home, of an undisclosed form of cancer, aged 65. Wright was a pianist and keyboardist; he grew up in Hatch End, North London and is best known for his long career with Pink Floyd. Although he wasnt really credited as a singer, he frequently sang background and occasionally lead vocals onstage and in the studio with Pink Floyd most notably on Time, Echoes, Matilda Mother, and Astronomy Domine, as well as notable harmonies onChapter 24 and The Scarecrow. Examples of his early compositions include Remember a Day, See-Saw, Paint Box and It Would Be So Nice. He also wrote significant parts of the music for classic albums such as Meddle, The Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here, as well as for Pink Floyds final studio album The Division Bell. His instrumental compositions include Cirrus Minor, Interstellar Overdrive, A Saucerful of Secrets, Careful with That Axe, Eugene, One of These Days and to musical themes for film scores. Bandmate David Gilmour said: “No one can replace Richard Wright. He was my musical partner and my friend. In the welter of arguments about who or what was Pink Floyd, Ricks enormous input was frequently forgotten. He was gentle, unassuming and private but his soulful voice and playing were vital, magical components of our most recognised Pink Floyd sound. I have never played with anyone quite like him. The blend of his and my voices and our musical telepathy reached their first major flowering in 1971 on Echoes. In my view all the greatest PF moments are the ones where he is in full flow. After all, without Us and Them and The Great Gig in the Sky, both of which he wrote, what would The Dark Side of the Moon have been? Without his quiet touch the album Wish You Were Here would not quite have worked. In our middle years, for many reasons he lost his way for a while, but in the early Nineties, with The Division Bell, his vitality, spark and humour returned to him and then the audience reaction to his appearances on my tour in 2006 was hugely uplifting and its a mark of his modesty that those standing ovations came as a huge surprise to him (though not to the rest of us). Like Rick, I dont find it easy to express my feelings in words, but I loved him and will miss him enormously.” Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason told Entertainment Weekly: “Like any band, you can never quite quantify who does what. But Pink Floyd wouldn’t have been Pink Floyd if [we] hadnt had Rick. I think there’s a feeling now – particularly after all the warfare that went on with Roger and David trying to make clear what their contribution was – that perhaps Rick rather got pushed into the background. Because the sound of Pink Floyd is more than the guitar, bass, and drum thing. Rick was the sound that knitted it all together... He was by far the quietest of the band, right from day one. And, I think, probably harder to get to know than the rest of us... Its almost that George Harrison thing. You sort of forget that they did a lot more than perhaps they’re given credit for.” Former bandmate Roger Waters website was replaced with a photograph of an array of candles and poppies against a black background; one of the screen images used for the song Wish You Were Here in his Dark Side of the Moon Live Tour. Waters issued a statement: “I was very sad to hear of Ricks premature death, I knew he had been ill, but the end came suddenly and shockingly. My thoughts are with his family, particularly [his children] Jamie and Gala and their mum Juliet, who I knew very well in the old days, and always liked very much and greatly admired. As for the man and his work, it is hard to overstate the importance of his musical voice in the Pink Floyd of the 60s and 70s. The intriguing, jazz influenced, modulations and voicings so familiar in Us and Them and Great Gig in the Sky, which lent those compositions both their extraordinary humanity and their majesty, are omnipresent in all the collaborative work the four of us did in those times. Ricks ear for harmonic progression was our bedrock. I am very grateful for the opportunity that Live 8 afforded me to engage with him and David [Gilmour] and Nick [Mason] that one last time. I wish there had been more. Richard Wright Pink Floyd Pink Floyd Fan Page
Posted on: Mon, 15 Sep 2014 15:30:02 +0000
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